WAUSEON, OH – The pole position was the place to be as Enoree, South Carolina’s Zack Mitchell and Owensboro, Kentucky’s Tyler Nicely each finished where they started as the DIRTcar Summer Nationals and the Summit Modifieds made its annual stop at Oakshade Raceway as a part of the 28th annual Birthday Race.
Mitchell, visiting Oakshade for the first time, started on the pole and was on his way to what appeared to be an easy win before a couple things made the night slightly tougher. First, came up lapped traffic that allowed second-running Trey Mills to close the gap. The second was a late-race caution that involved Tyler Erb, who also closed on the leaders at one point while in third.
As Mitchell moved his way through traffic, Mills and Erb closed the gap with just a few laps to go. With three remaining after a restart, Erb was third in line with the driver he’s attempting to chase down for the Summer National title, Jason Feger, close behind.
Heading into turn two, Erb and Feger made contact and Erb caught the worst of it, collecting fourth-place Colten Burdette in the process. Feger never stopped after the contact, which was deemed incidental, and was allowed to continue in his current position.
Erb, who spun and stopped, was sent to the trail end of the lead lap for the final three circuits and never challenged the rest of the night.
The caution freed the track of lapped cars for Mitchell, who outran Mills to claim the $10,000 payday.
Mills and Feger took second and third, with Eli Johnson fourth and Dillon McCowan fifth. Rusty Schlenk was the top Oakshade regular in the field, starting 12th and ending sixth.
No such issues bothered Nicely in the Summit National modified feature, as he and second-running Michael Ledford dominated the field. At one point, the top two were eight seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Ledford was able to slightly close the gap once Nicely reached the tail end of the lead lap. Nicely stuck to his line and cruised to win his seventh summer-series win this year.
Ledford settled for second, with Daniel Adam taking third, Mark Anderson fourth and Dalton Lane rounding out the top five.
Adam Lantz was on his way to making a sweep for the polesitters before he was collected in an incident that involved a red flag during the Dominator Super Stock feature that closed the night’s action.
Lantz, Mason Lutrell and Chad Poorman were all battling for the top spot with just a couple laps to go when Lantz went to the bottom of turn four and appeared to cut a tire. With his car off the pace, the field behind him was collected and the ensuing carnage saw a fire come out from under the hood of one of the collected cars.
Once everything was cleaned up, the fans still around were treated to the best ending of a race in the night. Lutrell led the field to the white and led until he got high up off the groove in turns three and four. That opened the door for Poorman, who was able to slide under Lutrell to claim the lead.
Jordan Conover, who at times was battling with the leaders, also snuck by Lutrell and looked to take the top spot down the frontstretch. In the end, Poorman held off Conover to claim his first feature win of the season.
Conover took second with Lutrell ending third. Scott Hammer, who started deep in the field, successfully stayed out of trouble and worked his way to fourth with Jeff Foks, Jr. rounding out the top five.
Oakshade Raceway roars back-to-back Saturday night with late models, DCR Graphics Sportsman, Dominator Super Stocks and compacts. Gates open at 4 p.m., hot laps at 6 and racing at 7:15.
